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Akane put her hand down on Liam’s shoulder and squeezed. Liam took his head from his hands and looked at her tiredly. She was pointing at a door that led deeper into the ship from the chokingly small room they were currently sitting in.

“You think there are others?” Liam whispered. Akane blinked and stood. “Right.” Liam grumbled. He climbed to his feet slowly, countering the constant pitching of the ship. Akane opened the door and held it there, staring strangely at the handle, but beckoning for Liam to pass through.

“So I’m the girl then. Fine.” Liam thought, slightly annoyed, but nevertheless walked through the opening.

There was only a descending stairwell, paralleled by two ornate handrails and a vast number of portraits that displayed previous captains and crew members. The fact that the lights were off made the grins of the crew malevolent and the sparkling white teeth turn to fangs in the perfect shadows.

Liam shook at the ominous aura around him, but continued to descend. He reached the bottom and looked out into the long halls.

“We’re near to the engine and maintenance rooms now. Too bad we weren’t above the cafeteria.” He said to himself

Akane suddenly overtook him and pushed forward through a number of hallways and turns, finally stopping at a door marked with “engine”. She gingerly tapped the doorknob, then the door, and finally pressed her ear to it. Liam listened pointlessly to the dead silence, until a muffled, high moaning crept up to him. Akane opened the door slowly, only just opening a space to see inside.

The moaning grew slightly louder.

Akane flung the door open and rushed in, grabbing one of the fire extinguishers off the wall, and ran out, motioning for Liam to repeat. Liam could see the dual engines sitting deathly still, each massive bulk showcasing its maze of pipes and chambers. Liam rushed in, past them and curled his fingers around the handle of the extinguisher when the moaning turned to a violent screech. Liam hardly had time to recognize the sound as a leak before the gas exploded.

He was immediately slammed with a wall of torrential heat as the invisible gas all around him ignited and surged across his body. It violently swirled around him and singed every hair he had, knocking him back onto the searing ground, burning his skin. Screaming, he pushed back into the hall as Akane began streaming the foam from the extinguisher onto him and the engines behind. The cool carpet outside was a welcome touch, but he sprung up from it, trying to escape the sizzling pool of foam. Akane was shouting at him, and he quickly realized he was still clutching the fire extinguisher. He fumbled with the pin but yanked it away and began spraying as well, coating whatever he could see through the smoke. When both cans ran dry, Liam could barely see the smoldering engine beneath the foam, pipes blown out and the pistons half melted. A chilling touch of fingers scratched violently at his arm, shocking him with an agony akin to the explosion as he felt something pulled out.

Liam shouted loudly and whipped about to look to see where it came from, and Akane waved a metal shard coated in blood in front of him. He looked at it and the bleeding gash in his right arm. Liam’s mind surged and he instinctively removed his T-shirt and very tightly wrapped it, looking around for anything to disinfect it with. Akane caught on and turned, running down the hall. Liam walked slowly as to prevent shock to the wound. He looked into the open rooms, observing all the potential supplies cast everywhere in a disheveled mess. He also watched for movement, never catching more than an unsettled pen falling off an uneven desk.

“Where are they? Where?”

Liam kept searching for any trace of his family as he struggled forward, but the pit in his chest grew deeper, and the weight it bore, heavier. Akane walked back up and snapped him out of his pondering. She held out a bottle of disinfectant and a roll of gauze. Liam strained a smile at her and unwrapped his shirt. Sinking to the floor, he slowly drizzled in the disinfectant and groaned loudly against the spike of pain, but kept pouring. When he decided it was enough, he wrapped his arm in the gauze and looked up and Akane. She looked down, concerned, but smiled.

“What are we going to do? The engine has blown up, we’re separated from everyone apparently, and we can’t even go outside!”

Liam watched then, as Akane ran past him back into the engine room.

“What are you doing? It’s not safe!” Liam shouted at her back.

Akane whipped around at the doorway and made the “ok” hand sign and ran in. Liam waited, heart pounding, for any sound.

Silence.

Liam began to worry. What was she doing?

Then the sound of a large car engine trying to turn over, but failing.

“What was that?”

Again it struggled against its damage.

“How is that destroyed piece of metal functioning?”

One last chug, and it roared to life, bringing with it a flood of luminescence as every light clicked on one after the other. Akane ran out of the engine room beaming and howling with laughter. She bolted forward and began speaking quickly in a foreign language. Liam put both his hands up and she stopped, still chuckling. Akane put up two fingers. Over one, she put her fist and suddenly opened it, mimicking the sound of an explosion. She wrapped that finger back into her fist. One finger remaining, and she pointed at it and shrieked with jubilant laughter again.

“The surviving engine- she got it working!”

Liam started laughing as well, dancing despite the pain, relishing in the thought that there might now be some hope. But all of that distracted them from the crawling hands and feet behind them, and the labored breathing creeping towards their necks.